


Double Day

by PhoenixGryffin



Category: Welcome to Night Vale
Genre: Angst, Desert Bluffs, Gen, I'm Sorry, Implied Vivisection, Kevin being Kevin, Night Vale, not happy at all
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-09-05
Updated: 2013-09-05
Packaged: 2017-12-25 16:07:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,601
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/955108
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PhoenixGryffin/pseuds/PhoenixGryffin
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p><em>"As my mother used to tell me, “Someone's going to kill you one day, Cecil, and it will involve a mirror. Mark my words, child.”</em><br/>-Welcome to Night Vale, Faceless Old Woman</p>
<p>Another sandstorm appears in both Night Vale and Desert Bluffs. </p>
<p>Heavily inspired by a fancomic, made by cacoethic.tumblr.com. (image link in the notes, image warning for lots of blood/gore)</p>
            </blockquote>





	Double Day

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Looks like he's a little too busy to talk. Folks from Night Vale are so industrious!](https://archiveofourown.org/external_works/27034) by cacoethic.tumblr.com. 



NIGHT VALE RADIO STATION

"Night Vale? During the weather, I received word from the city council that an extremely fast-moving sandstorm, similar to the one we experienced a few months ago- you know, the one where all our doubles showed up and tried to attack us- has mysteriously appeared again and is now approaching our town at an incredibly fast rate. I must remind you not to go out in the middle of the sandstorm for any reason whatsoever, and if you happen to see someone who looks exactly like you, run. Run far away until they are only a vague memory, perhaps a dream, lost forever in the swirling sand currently surrounding our town.

For my own part, if an enchanting and...weirdly hypnotic vortex appears in the radio station like it did the last time a sandstorm came through Night Vale, I am definitely not going anywhere near it."

 

DESERT BLUFFS RADIO STATION

"Hello there, Desert Bluffs! During the weather, I received some wonderful news from StrexCorp! It looks like another sandstorm, similar to the one that appeared here a few months ago, has entered our town. We get the day off from work again, and also, we'll get to see two sunrises in the same day for the second time! Isn't that great, Desert Bluffs? 

I can only hope that I get to meet my double again. If another wondrous and beautiful vortex appears in the wall of this radio station, I am most certainly going to go through it."

 

NIGHT VALE RADIO STATION

"Reports say that the sandstorm has reached the center of town, and Night Vale, once more I must advise you all not to go outside. Do not...oh. Oh no. 

Listeners? The black vortex has once more appeared along my studio wall. It's one of the most beautiful things I have ever seen- but noooo. I am _not_ going through that vortex, and I am definitely not returning to the terrible, vile place, wherever or whatever it may be, that lies behind it."

 

DESERT BLUFFS RADIO STATION

"I urge you all, if for some reason you haven't already, to go outside. See if your double appears, and if they do, celebrate together. Enjoy this blessed day and...oh! 

Listeners, I have truly wonderful news! The beautiful white vortex has returned to the wall of my radio studio, just as I had hoped. I'm truly sorry for leaving you all like this, Desert Bluffs, but I'm sure that I'll only be gone for a minute or two."

 

NIGHT VALE RADIO STATION

"Fortunately, the sandstorm appears to be leaving as quickly as it came, and hopefully in another few minutes, this strangely entrancing vortex in my radio studio will be gone, too. It seems to be shrinking even as I speak- no, wait. It looks like it's growing. Someone is coming through it. I can't quite make out who it is yet, Night Vale, but I certainly hope that their intentions are not for evil. 

No...wait. It's him. The awful wretch of a man I met in the vortex a few months ago has just-"

 

NIGHT VALE LABORATORY

Cecil's voice was suddenly replaced by a crashing noise. Then a few barely audible scuffling sounds were heard, then...something breaking, maybe? It was hard to tell.

After that, there was only silence. Endless, undulating silence, seeming to permeate throughout the entire laboratory with a chill. It wasn't as if hearing only silence in the laboratory was unusual- Carlos had heard silence many times on the radio before. According to Cecil, station management was very fond of having only silence broadcasted on the radio for multiple hours nearly every day, claiming it was 'educational'. Carlos had highly doubted the educational value of said silence, but that silence was at least familiar. Comforting, almost. Proof that there was still a faint semblance of routine in Night Vale.

This silence was different, unscheduled. Ominous. 

Carlos waited for Cecil's voice to reappear on the radio, like it always did. Of course it would. The news was a constant in Night Vale. Cecil would be back in a few seconds, and everything would be fine.

But a minute passed, and then another, and the ominous silence was still unbroken. Unable to wait any longer, Carlos sped outside and began to run to the radio station, trying not to breathe in the fiercely swirling sand still in the air, forgetting about his ongoing study of the mysterious 'flowers' that had cropped up outside City Hall one day, and running right past a figure who looked suspiciously similar to himself. None of those mattered at the moment. Cecil was more important.

 

NIGHT VALE RADIO STATION

...

...

...

 

DESERT BLUFFS RADIO STATION

"I'm back! Great news for us today, Desert Bluffs! Looks like the sandstorm is busy at work again in our town, and you know what that means- another double day! I already found mine, and let me tell you- we're getting on like a house on fire!

He really is a stand-up guy! Why, right now he's kindly helping me clean up my desk! Isn't that swell?"

"..."

"Looks like he's a little too busy to talk. Folks from Night Vale are so _industrious!_ "

 

ENTRANCE TO NIGHT VALE RADIO STATION

After what seemed like forever, Carlos arrived at the entrance to the radio station, trying to catch his breath. Fueled by panic, he burst through the doors and demanded that one of the interns (he didn't know her name, it seemed like there were always a completely new set of radio interns every time he visited the radio station) tell him exactly what had just happened and where Cecil was.

The intern refused to meet his gaze, finally murmuring, "Well...we don't know."

"What do you mean you don't know? How can you not know what happened to your own radio host?" Carlos was surprised at the amount of desperation creeping into his voice and fought to reduce it, to stay perfectly objective.

"Um, well, we just...have no idea what happened. At all. Cecil's not in there, but none of us saw him leave the studio. Station management hasn't sent us any envelopes about it either," said the intern, looking somewhat intimidated by Carlos' outburst and still refusing to look him in the eye, "But I guess we can show you the studio room. Maybe you'll be able to figure out what happened? By using science or whatever it is you do?" Carlos nodded almost numbly, fighting to stay objective, to look at this problem as though it were just another test that he had to take, as though he had no personal connection with the subject whatsoever. As though the vanished radio host was simply a stranger, and not the most important person in his whole life. As though-oh god _oh god_ he couldn't do this where was Cecil what was going on-

The intern had stopped outside the door to Cecil's studio. Carlos paused outside the studio door for a second, trying to regain his composure. Maybe it was all a bad dream, maybe Cecil was in the radio station like always. Carlos tentatively opened the door.

"...Cecil?"

But, of course, Cecil's studio was completely empty, with the same ominous silence that Carlos had heard in the laboratory filling the air here as well. The studio looked fairly normal from where Carlos was standing, though, except for the fact that Cecil's chair was tipped over, and a few of the instruments seemed to be in disarray.

_Cecil wouldn't just leave in the middle of a broadcast like that, not without at least transitioning to the weather_ , thought Carlos, trying to analyze the problem from a purely scientific viewpoint. Cecil was a radio professional, after all. Not only that, but Carlos specifically remembered Cecil mentioning something about how he wasn't going to leave the studio like he had on the day of the last sandstorm, even though a vortex on the studio wall had appeared-

_That was it._ Carlos frenetically scanned all of the studio walls for a black-looking vortex, but there was nothing there. Frustrated, he tried knocking on each one individually, looking for hollow places, secret tunnels, exits, anything. Nothing worked. All the walls seemed to be completely solid. 

Cecil had to be fine. Of course. There was no way he wasn't. It wasn't Night Vale without Cecil's sonorous voice broadcasting news on the radio.

Right?

Carlos stood there in the radio station for a very long time, only dimly aware of the time passing. Cecil was gone. Cecil was really gone, and there was no scientific explanation for his disappearance whatsoever. Cecil had been the one thing that Carlos could cling to in the face of whatever unexplainable thing Night Vale threw at him.

But time passed, and the radio station stayed horrifyingly empty.

NIGHT VALE RADIO STATION

...

...

...

DESERT BLUFFS RADIO STATION

"Well, Desert Bluffs, the sandstorm seems to be over now, and according to the most recent StrexCorp reports, it sounds like your doubles are all vanishing along with it. The vortex in my radio studio has disappeared as well, but for some miraculous reason, my duplicate is still here. Isn't this wonderful? My desk is already looking much more well-constructed than it was before, thanks to his help. I'm sure that we'll be able to accomplish _much_ more together in the days to come! 

I would continue, but unfortunately I'm already exceeding StrexCorp's allotted time for this radio broadcast. So I wish you all a beautiful night, and as always, until next time, Desert Bluffs. Until next time."


End file.
